Committee drops gun range proposal

June 23, 2004|By Lynn Van Matre, Tribune staff reporter.

A controversial proposal to build a gun range on DuPage County Forest Preserve District property has gone up in smoke after months of debate.

Commissioner Joseph Cantore, who heads a committee that has been studying the issue, said Tuesday that district staff had informed him that no suitable site could be found for a range because of noise and safety concerns and "incompatibility with natural resources."

Staff had been seeking a possible site since fall, when Cantore proposed the range on behalf of what he described as hundreds of area gun owners who wanted the district to add a range to its roster of outdoor recreational activities.

Many longtime DuPage County environmental activists immediately took aim at the proposal, arguing it was an inappropriate use of district land.

A few range opponents, including members of the Sierra Club and the Illinois Prairie Path, a non-profit corporation, showed up to reiterate their concerns at the public comment segment of Tuesday's commission planning session. "We are not opposed to gun ranges in general, but when citizens voted for open land referendums, they never thought that [forest preserve] land would be used for a gun range," Frank Orto, local Sierra Club executive chairman, told commissioners. Others who spoke against the proposal argued that a range would disturb wildlife, spoil the tranquility of the preserves and create liability issues.

In addition to Cantore, the special recreation committee appointed by district President "Dewey" Pierotti to study the proposal included Commissioners Roger Kotecki and Carl Schultz. At the committee meeting, Kotecki asked that members formally bring the matter to a close in view of staff's findings.

"Several of us have been accused of [wanting a shooting range]," said Kotecki, who earlier had expressed doubts about the district's ability to locate a site. "I would like to go on record saying we're not looking any longer."

Schultz suggested taking a vote on whether committee members concurred with district staff. It passed 3-0.

Committee members stopped short of deleting shooting ranges from a list of activities identified as tertiary possibilities in the district's recreation policy, which is undergoing revision. Kotecki said it might be possible that someone would donate land in an industrial area suitable for a range in the future.

Pierotti opposed the shooting range from the beginning, saying it was misleading to the public to put a range on land presumably bought to preserve open space.

"But we have an obligation to consider these things if someone brings them forward," Pierotti said Tuesday. "I don't want to make a decision like that behind closed doors."